What Final Fantasy Next?

Help decide which Final Fantasy game I should play next.

What Final Fantasy Next? [ ARTICLE ]

I did this awhile back after I had completed Final Fantasy XII and XIII in the same night, I asked you which Final Fantasy game should I play next of those I hadn’t completed. Now I’m about halfway through Final Fantasy VIII and wondering which one I should play next.

Here’s the break down of games in the series I have completed:

Final Fantasy I

Final Fantasy II

Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy IV

Final Fantasy V

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VII

Final Fantasy VIII in progress

Final Fantasy IX

Final Fantasy X

Final Fantasy X-2

*Final Fantasy XI

Final Fantasy XII

Final Fantasy XIII

Final Fantasy XIII-2

*Final Fantasy XIV

*excludes Final Fantasy XI and XIV as they are both MMORPGs

Final Fantasy X-2 was at the bottom of my list last time, but after finishing Final Fantasy XIII I dread playing Final Fantasy XIII-2 the most.

Things to take into consideration: I already own Final Fantasy X-2, Final Fantasy III will be available for the Ouya in two months and Final Fantasy XIII-2 is the sequel to Final Fantasy XIII.

The reality is that I have very little time to game these days, so what time I do have game I want to enjoy. Your help is greatly appreciated.

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Comments

Jimmy T

I personally think you should get onto Final Fantasy XIII-2. I think it’s a good refresher from the classics. The low poly counts and prerendered backgrounds couple with all the text and no voice acting can just give me headaches sometimes. That coupled with the lack of direction in earlier games @.@

It’s a beautiful game, not too tedious or hard to 100%, and I found it fun. My only probably is that combat seemed significantly easier. Like using all the classes in FFXIII was helpful in that game, but in XIII-2 sticking to the magic and warrior classes was pretty much the fastest and more efficient way to play most of the game.

if not, I recommend III. Personally I got stuck in that game due to being trapped in an area where I couldn’t train and had an upcoming boss battle. Damn those older gaming oversights. The older FF games are full of them. Other than that, I probably would’ve finished it, and I found it fun.

Play FFV both 3 and 5 have the Job system but I think 5 does a better job of it.

Ashtear

I’d say go with Final Fantasy V. The combat system on X-2 is great, particularly mid-battle job switching, but that’s the only thing about the game that I liked, personally.

Unless you really loved FFX, in which case X-2 might be more interesting to you.

Seth

If you really loved X and want your appreciation for it to continue untarnished, I recommend staying the hell away from X-2.

Torticoli

III didn’t age well. XIII-2 is the sequel to the worst game in the franchise (excluding XIV) so I wouldn’t bother.

V and X-2 are both really good games, but obviously, V is showing its age as well. However, I’d say it’s about as mechanically solid as VI, although it has a very different tone and the story is much weaker. X-2 is great, but the cheesiness factor might put you off, even though I’d recommend you keep at it for a few hours, because once it gets going, it’s a very enjoyable game if you can accept how ridiculous and fan-service-y it can get sometimes.

But considering you don’t have a lot of time, I’d say try V first. You’ll quickly know if you’re up for old-school, SNES Final Fantasy ; if you are, great, play it, if you’re not, then give X-2 a try. I’d definitely recommend those two, and I’d definitely recommend you leave III behind for now, and forget that XIII-2 exists.

SilentS

I liked XIII-2 quite a bit more than I liked XIII, and place both of those above X-2 (even if all 3 are still near the bottom of my preferred list). Even with all the flaws. As for what to play next, I would go with the earliest games first and work my way from there. Even if they are rather dated, they still have their own charms. Not to mention the later versions usually correct some of the issues from the prior games. So in a sense it is better to play the inferior ones first then play the next in the series, instead of playing the better ones first only to be disappointed when you go to the prior ones that are flawed.

Anonymous

While I liked XIII and XIII-2, XIII-2 is does NOT have a complete plot-line and ends with a shameless sequel-hook.

X-2’s battle system is FANTASTIC, but the plot…is a little weird… If you want the true ending, you’ll need to research the requirements, because they are hella random.

V is simply stunning.

If you go with X-2 or V, you should have a good time.

PrinceJonathan

Definitely V, I have the Advanced version and it is great. Only thing I don’t like is the Steal Mechanics. “Enemy has a rare item you want to steal, steal, didn’t get it, cast Return to reset the fight and try again”, sounds good in theory right? Well picture doing that 50-100 times! You want that shiny Dragon Lance well you better top off your beverage of choice and make a sandwich cause you’ll be there a while.

Oh and not being able to pass turns. In VI you could pass your turn to anyone else who’s ATB gauge is filled with Select, but not in V.

Peekaboo

5. I never beat it but it was a fun game.

Zhen

Of those you have left, I’d say V was the only one I really enjoyed, though as someone above mentioned, V’s job system was basically just a huge improvement over III’s so if you plan to play V first it might make it more difficult to go back to III later depending on whether the Ouya version uses the DS enhanced version of III or the original.

And I will say that X-2 isn’t as bad as people make it out to be. I don’t count it among my favorites by any means, but it did have a nice combat system and that’s definitely nice when half of these games is combat.

If you step out of the core series, go for Tactics or Mystic Quest (I loved mystic quest so much) or even step out even farther and pull out Dirge of Cerberus, which I really enjoyed even though it didn’t get great reviews. In the core, X-2 has one of the worst stories ever, and you occasionally have to put up with a J-pop concert or a slumber party or stupid gossip (Who likes who?!!!). Despite all that, X-2 also has some of the best combat in the entire series, with a heavy emphasis on timing and chain attacks, and the ability to change job mid-battle is pretty awesome too. I feel like in most FF games there comes a point when the combat starts to get boring (usually when you are grinding towards the last quarter of the game and aren’t really gaining any new abilities) and you just plow through it to get to the rest of he story. X-2 is the opposite, where you plow through the story to get to more battles!

GTMeteor

Tactics. The story is unparalleled, and simply the best out of all the games.

Vinicius

FFV is my favorite, so I recommend this one just because there is so much to do with the job system.

Will

FFV’s job system is fantastic, while overall the game is solid (for the year it came out). Just thinking about it makes me want to go back and finish the game again. thewood pointed out that you blaze through the story in X-2 to get to more battles, and while I’ve never played X-2 and can’t vouch for it, FFV makes me feel much the same way.

Phaelin

Wow at all of the comments.

I’m just going to throw my hat in the ring for Final Fantasy III. I haven’t tried the DS version, though I have heard nothing but good things about it. There’s a rom of the translated one over on emuparadise, and it is fantastic. I just beat it Friday, actually. I love IV, and III is not terribly different except for the job system. If you ever want any pointers when you try it out, just let me know, I’ve got the thing figured out forwards and backwards.

It is also the first Final Fantasy game (other than VII) that I have ever beat. I love ’em, but it’s rare that I play them all the way through, for whatever reason. I’ll eventually give the DS version a shot, but for now, the NES version was a blast.

IT

This is going to sound weird, but do you have an iOS device? If so, I’d honestly suggest Final Fantasy: Dimensions. It’s got a job class system, the “technical limitations” of the iOS devices mean that it’s 2D sprites that are really, really polished, and the story is pretty good. It reminds me of FFV, which I liked.

TZer0

I feel bad. I love the Final Fantasy games. I haven’t played any after VIII. I love the Card game in 8. VII is still my favorite and Then Tactics. I lost faith in the games when they made X-2. I still have 3 for SNES one for NES. I have the Strat guide from Nintendo Power for One. I love the series and most games Square produced. I need to get my emulators up and start playing these all again.

TZer0

Just installed SNES emulator and FFIII . My productivity for today is going to be shot.

Michael

Personally, of the new FF, which I’ll arbitrarily consider anything FF7 and up, I found 8 and 12 to be the weakest. I liked 10 and 13. I found 10-2 to be enjoyable if you ignore the opening cutscene. It’s very much FF10. The one drawback was if you don’t play with a walkthrough it’s possible to miss a lot of content. I don’t care about 100% completion, but missing content because I didn’t do shit in the “right order” is lame. FF5 is solid.

Xphacter

SInce they made exp so easy to gain in FFXI, they can be beaten (Defeat of the Dark Lord) within the same time as some of the other FF’s. I wouldn’t completely cross it off your list as the story is really good.